Hilton Head man accused of heists convicted of bank robberies before

A Hilton Head Island man accused of robbing two southern Beaufort County banks this month by claiming to have a bomb confessed he planned the heists to fuel his drug habit, according to a Beaufort County Sheriff's Office report.

David Edward Boyd, 51, has been charged in connection to a robbery at Bank of America on Hilton Head Island Thursday. Beaufort County Sheriff's Office released this photo from the bank's surveillance camera.
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Bluffton Police released this photo of the man suspected of robbing Bank of America on Baylor Drive in Bluffton Wednesday afternoon.
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Bluffton Police released this picture of the man suspected of robbing the Bank of America on Baylor Drive in Bluffton.
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A Hilton Head Island man accused of robbing two southern Beaufort County banks this month by claiming to have a bomb confessed he planned the heists to fuel his drug habit, according to a Beaufort County Sheriff's Office report.

David Edward Boyd Jr., 51, has also been convicted of robbing banks before.

He pleaded guilty to robbing three Lee County, Fla., banks in 1995, according to U.S. District Attorney's Office records. The following year, he was sentenced to eight years in federal prison, according to William Daniels, spokesman for the Middle District of Florida U.S. Attorney's Office.

Boyd is in the Beaufort County Detention Center, charged with robbing two Bank of America branches in two days -- one in Bluffton, the other on Hilton Head. He was denied bond, and his case will be handled by the Career Criminal Prosecution Unit of the 14th Judicial Circuit Solicitor's Office, according to Solicitor Duffie Stone.

Deputies captured Boyd on May 2, shortly after the robbery of the Hilton Head branch on Hatton Place. A deputy saw him jump out of a car matching the description of the getaway vehicle, a green Honda Civic, and run near the Quality Inn on nearby Museum Street, where he had recently rented a room. He was tackled by a female deputy in the parking lot of a nearby fast-food restaurant, according to Sheriff's Office reports.

A picture of Boyd taken from surveillance footage from the Bluffton Bank of America on Windrush Lane had been widely circulated in the media by the time of the second robbery.

Boyd was turned over to investigators and waived his Miranda rights. He cried and confessed to robbing both the Bluffton and Hilton Head banks because of drug addiction and to pay overdue rent, the reports say.

"I already spent time in federal prison for the same damn thing," Boyd told investigators, according to the report.

A search of his hotel room yielded a metal tube, bronze wool and a pipe cleaner -- "all items consistently used in the smoking of crack cocaine," according to a report.

Boyd was living with his girlfriend at Woodlake Apartments on Hilton Head before the bank robberies, but recently began staying at the hotel because the couple were reportedly arguing, Sgt. Robin McIntosh said. His girlfriend also had recently filed a report accusing him of stealing a check from her and forging her signature, McIntosh said.

He also reportedly borrowed the Honda from a coworker May 1. He is accused of hitting another vehicle with it in the Walmart parking lot, where he attempted to return some clothes moments before robbing the Hilton Head bank, reports indicate.

In his interview with investigators, Boyd said he had already spent about $12,000 from the Bluffton bank robbery the previous day on drugs.

Deputies recovered about $16,000 from the Hilton Head bank robbery at the time of Boyd's arrest.

However, Boyd denied writing notes that said he had a bomb in either incident. Both bank tellers who handed him cash during the heists testified that he claimed to have a bomb.

Boyd told investigators he was "sorry for his actions," and he "wouldn't do it again," the reports say.

His charges on two counts of armed robbery and threatening the use of a destructive device will go before a Beaufort County grand jury in June, according to the Solicitor's Office.

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